In a variety of different aerodynamic scenarios, airflows occurring over wind turbine blades may become turbulent, unstable or below or above the optimal airflow speed envelope. In some cases and during some severe environmental conditions, it may reduce the efficiency and energy producing characteristics or robustness of the wind turbine blades, resulting in reduced overall aerodynamic efficiency and reliability, as well as reduced energy production.
Previous techniques have addressed this issue by providing various types of modifications of the shapes of the wind turbine blades or means of active airflow control. However, these previous approaches typically involve utilization of different materials or utilizing mechanical, electromechanical, or pneumatic systems. Modifying underlying design or retrofitting the wind turbine blades may involve significant modification of the structure underlying an airfoil. Also, these previous systems, including ones utilizing enhanced materials, may be expensive to implement, in terms of cost and labor to install or retrofit onto existing airfoils.
In addition, some previous active airflow control systems incorporate several electrodes disposed along a single given dielectric. However, such systems may not efficiently utilize the surface area of an airfoil that would otherwise be available for generating plasma. For example, if the electrodes are located too close to one another, counterforces may form between adjacent electrodes. These counterforces may result in smaller, weaker clusters of plasma, which are less effective in generating bulk airflows.
To reduce the formation of these counterforces, these previous active airflow control systems may increase the distances between the electrodes along the single dielectric. However, these increased distances between electrodes may result in fewer plasma-generating units per unit of surface area on the airfoil. This decreased concentration of plasma-generating units, in turn, may reduce the efficiency of these previous airflow control systems in influencing bulk airflows.